Congressman Tom Cole for Oklahoma Living

Each year Oklahoma Living Magazine produces their annual legislative issue. I have been fortunate to photograph the cover for several years now. This year they featured U.S. Congressman Tom Cole on the cover. I photographed Mr. Cole at his legislative office in Norman on one of his breaks from working in Washington D.C. As usual with busy people, I set up my lights and camera in advanced and tested everything in advance before he arrived for the shoot. Once Mr. Cole was available, I spent no more than 5 minutes photographing him and got six different looks for my editor Anna Politano. I usually only take 3-4 frames at each “station” and move my subject quickly to the next so I can get a variety of looks for the editor. For this setup I had to fit everything into his office and work around existing furniture. I used two Einstein lights with modifiers for the shoot, and basically taped the settings for each “setup” onto a yellow post it note and stuck it on the lights. This way I could have Mr. Cole stand for one setup, take a few quick frames, move him to another setup, change my camera and light settings to those written on the post-it note, snap a few more frames, then on to the next setup. Space was tight but we made it work – in 5 minutes!

I photographed U.S. Congressman Tom Cole at his office in Norman.I set up a gray backdrop in one corner of Congressman Tom Cole’s office for this shot.

About James Pratt

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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